Eduardo Arias

By David Von DrehleWednesday, Dec. 19, 2007

Scott Dalton / New York Times / Redux

Is the little guy powerless in the global economy? Ask this discount-shopping Panamanian who bothered to read his toothpaste label. Among the ingredients, where it should have said "glyercine," Arias spotted the chemical name for antifreeze. Within days he lit the fuse on a scandal of tainted Chinese exports. He might have worked faster if he could afford a car.